PAPERS ON EDUCATION. First Series, 18. 



THE LEGAL PREVENTION 
OF ILLITERACY 



NORTHROP 



l^s- 






Hottograpll 



THE LEGAL PREVENTION OF 
ILLITEEACY 



-A PAPER - 

Reprinted, with Additions, feom the 
Repoet of the Connecticut Boaed of Education foe 187&. 

Bm^^ORTHROP, LL. D., 

Seceetaet Connecticut Boaed of Educatioh. 



NEW YORK: 

E. STEIGER, 

1878. 



»?-1 



U » 



9'^ 













THE LEGAL PREVENTION OF ILLITERACY. 



POWER OF PUBLIC SENTIMENT. 

Public sentiment is a growing power the world over. 
In our country its influence is most marked. Here it creates 
law and repeals it. A law in violation of public sentiment 
is a dead letter, and therefore demoralizing, for laws habit- 
ually violated tend to lawlessness. Reverence for law is a 
wholesome sentiment, which should be early implanted in 
the juvenile mind. Laws in reference alike to the support 
of schools or attendance upon them must depend largely 
upon public sentiment. Laws, just and right in themselves, 
and adapted, if sustained, to promote the greatest good of 
the greatest number, may yet fail utterly from the want of 
popular sympathy and support. The question, therefore, 
of the expediency of compulsory attendance at school in any 
given State depends on the enlightened public sentiment of 
that community. 

Wherever good schools have been so long maintained 
that the people generally regard them as essential to their 
individual thrift and happiness and to public security, 
morality, and prosperity, laws for the prevention of illiter- 
acy may be wisely enacted. In those States where free 
public schools are still a novelty, or where illiteracy most 
abounds, where multitudes appreciate neither the advan- 
tages of education nor the evils of ignorance, compulsory 
attendance would be premature and impracticable. 

But in those States where the traditions of the people 
from their earliest history have fostered the general appreci- 
ation of common - school education as their most precious 



heritage, as the source of their success and prosperity, as 
indispensable to their future growth, as essential to skilled 
industry, as the cheapest police-agency, education comes at 
length to be recognized as the universal right, duty, and 
interest of man. If the State has a right to provide for any 
internal improvements, it has the right to provide for that 
education which is the condition of all progress. If the 
State may enforce regulations for the health of the body, it 
may do the same for the mind. If the State has a right to 
hang a criminal, it has a better right to prevent his crime 
by proper culture. The right to imprison and to execute 
implies the right to use the best means to prevent the need 
of either. 

In Connecticut public sentiment is steadily growing in 
favor of the legal prevention of illiteracy. Stringent as are 
our laws on this subject, they have awakened no public 
opposition. A few individual malcontents among recent 
immigrants, mostly from Canada, have complained because 
their children could not be continuously employed in our 
factories. A few parents — I have not heard of a dozen in 
all — openly defied the law, but as soon as they found that 
the law was imperative and the school officers in earnest 
and that legal complaints were made out against them, they 
were glad to stay proceedings by compliance with its pro- 
visions. The circulation of printed blank forms of complaint 
against negligent parents proves useful. Under this law 
we have had as yet no prosecutions and no penalties. We 
hope there will be none. 

It has been my constant desire to awaken a better ap- 
preciation of education in all parts of the State, knowing 
well that the condition of the schools everywhere answers 
to the public sentiment of each community. To intensify 
this interest I have mingled much with the people and 
lectured in every township of Connecticut, and in most of 
them repeatedly. In all these lectures it has been my aim, 
so far as in my power, to make the public school the center 



I ?1S - 3 - 

of attraction and interest, so that attendance shall be re- 
garded as a privilege rather than a legal necessity. 

METHODS AND EESULTS. 

The methods and results of our proceedings under the 
new laws of obligatory education are worthy of notice. 
These laws relate both to employers and parents. The law 
in regard to employers was adopted in 1869. That form of 
compulsory education has been in force for five years. An 
earlier law, copied verbatim from a Massachusetts stat- 
ute, pronounced its penalty against all manufacturers 
who should ' ^knoioingly employ children who had not at- 
tended school," etc. That one word ''knowingly" utterly 
vitiated the law. It was inserted as an amendment to the 
original bill on its second reading in the Massachusetts 
senate, at the suggestion of a manufacturer who knew well 
"how not to do it." The Massachusetts law still retains 
that unfortunate word. Practically, it is found impossible 
to prove the employer's knowledge of the child's non-attend- 
ance. "Not to know" is always easy for an employer. 

Our law originally applied to manufacturers only. As 
revised, it relates equally to all employers. According to 
its provisions, no child under 14 years of age can be law- 
fully employed to labor in any business whatsoever^ unless 
such child shall have attended some school at least three 
months in each year of such service. The penalty for the 
violation of this law is one hundred dollars for each offense. 

Realizing that the efficiency of the law would depend 
largely on the department of education, the Board deter- 
mined it should not be a dead letter; but instead of threat- 
ening prosecutions at the outset, we sought to conciliate 
the manufacturers, conferring with them courteously as 
friends of education, and assuming that they would heart- 
ily cooperate in the enforcement of the law. To this end, I 
drew up the following pledge: "We hereby agree that we 
will employ no children under 14 years of age, except those 



— 4 — 

who arc provided with a certificate from the local school 
officers of actual attendance at school the full term required 
by law." I first presented it to ex-GoYcrnor James E. En- 
glish ; then to Governor Marshall Jewell ; next to the late 
ex-Governor William A. Buckingham, who — all extensive 
manufacturers — cheerfully signed it. I then started to get 
the signatures of manufacturers generally; but the work 
proved so great and' important that a gentleman was ap- 
pointed as Agent of the Board of Education to canvass the 
State. He visited the leading manufacturers throughout 
the State, and, with one exception, they cheerfully signed 
the above pledge. This law has proved beneficent in its 
results. During the five years of its operation it has met 
general and cordial approval and brought large numbers 
into our schools. There still occur instances of remissness 
and forgetfulness of the date when school attendance of 
particular children is again required as the condition of 
their further employment. A few manufacturers, perhaps, 
feel annoyed by the trouble this law occasions them. But 
as a rule, our manufacturers evidently approve its provisions. 
It is not believed that any of the signers intend to repudiate 
the pledge above cited. They have shown a degree of 
liberality and interest in education worthy of commendation. 
A courteous reminder from tlie Agent or Secretary of the 
Board has been sufficient to remedy occasional instances of 
inadvertency. But even here vigilance is necessary. The 
law is still evaded in some cases. Should it anywhere be 
openly violated, prosecutions should promptly follow every 
ineflcctual remonstrance. I hereby renew the request long 
since made to the local school officers to communicate to me 
any facts they may know as to neglect in the schooling of 
children. A journey of the Agent or Secretary to the re- 
motest district of the State would be amply compensated 
by the addition of a single child to the regular attendants at 
school. For the verv purpose of increasing the attendance, 
the Agent is now chiefly occupied in visiting schools, school 



— 5 — 

officers, and manufacturers, and in some cases parents. 
This work, however, properly belongs to the School Visit- 
ors, and I respectfully call their attention to the following 
requirement of the law, and invite their hearty cooperation 
in this matter. ''It shall be the duty of the School Visitors 
in every town, once or more in every year, to examine into 
the situation of the children employed in all manufacturing 
establishments in such town and ascertain whether all the 
provisions of this chapter are duly observed, and report all 
violations thereof to one of the grand jurors of the town." 

School Visitors can render no more useful service to the 
State than by searching out the ''absentees" and bringing 
them into school. The work may be humble, but if fitly 
done, the results will be broad and lasting. 

Four years ago a law of compulsory attendance at 
school was passed applying to all 'parents of children who 
were employed to labor at any business in this State, and 
who were discharged for the purpose of attending school. 
This class of children was supposed to comprise nearly all 
"non-attendants." The next year this limitation was re- 
moved. Our law now requires that ^^ every parent, guard- 
ian, or other person having control and charge of any child 
between the ages of 8 and 14 years, shall cause such chiltl 
to attend some public or private day-school at least three 
months in each year, six weeks at least of which attendance 
shall be consecutive, or to he instructed at home at least 
three months in each year in the branches of education re- 
quired to be taught in the public schools, unless the physical 
or mental condition of the child is such as to render such 
attendance inexpedient or impracticable." The penalty for 
the violation of the above provisions is a Jiyie of five dollars 
' ' for every week, not exceeding thirteen weeks in any one 
year, during which any parent or guardian shall have failed 
to comply therewith." As French Canadians are very 
numerous in many of our manufacturing villages, printed 
posters in both French and English, giving the substance 



— 6 — 

of the law both in its application to parents and employers, 
were widely circulated and posted. 

The following notice, neatly printed, was also sent to the 
manufacturers of the State, to be posted in some conspicu- 
ous place: 

*'In accordance with the statute of the legislature of 
1869, no children under 14 years of age can hereafter be 
employed in this factory except those who present a certif- 
icate from the local school officers of actual attendance at 
school the full time required by law, which is 'at least three 
months of the twelve next preceding any and every year in 
which such children shall be so employed.' " 

Many evasions of this law also no doubt occur, but the 
masses approve its provisions, and mean that they shall be 
observed. Many children, at first attending school reluc- 
tantly and only under the coercion of the law, have at 
length become so interested in study and eager for improve- 
ment as to attend of their own accord far beyond the time 
required by law. Parents who once pleaded that they 
were "too poor to spare their children's wages in the miU," 
liave expressed a new and strange pride in, and ambition 
for, their children's progress. They have at length learned 
that their own ignorance is one cause of their poverty, 
and that education is essential to the thrift and prosperity 
of their children. 

The more thoroughly this law is executed, the less of 
course will be the average attendance. The greater the 
number who attend school only the time required by law, 
the less will be the average for the whole yeai\ Three 
months' schooling a year is not enough, but it is a good be- 
ginning. "Half a loaf is better than no bread." It is 
hoped that such interest in school and fondness for books 
will be awakened as to induce many to attend longer than 
the time required by law. 

Our aggregate attendance last year was 95.65 per cent, 
of the whole number enumerated — the highest figures ever 



reached in this State. The whole number enumerated in 
1874 was 133,528; the whole number in schools of all kinds 
was 127,720; since 1869 the increase in enumeration is 
9,878; since 1869 the increase in number registered at 
school is 19,908. The increase of attendance above the 
increase in enumeration is 10,030. 

These figures are given not in any spirit of boasting for 
the past, but as an encouragement for the future. They 
show that here is an inviting field of labor. Much still re- 
mains to be done. This service must be continued. Like 
kitchen work, it does not stay done. 

The result above named has cost work. We have visited 
all the towns, conferred with manufacturers and School 
Visitors, and sometimes with parents. We have entered 
the schools and invited the cooperation of teachers. The 
subject has been presented in our Institutes and in educa- 
tional lectures in all parts of the State. We have not leaned 
upon the law alone, but it surely has been of great service. 
Both political parties favor it. No suggestion for its repeal 
has been made in the legislature, nor, so far as I know, in 
any caucus or public meeting in the State. 

It is highly creditable to the intelligence of the people of 
Connecticut that they plainly sanction the legal prevention 
of illiteracy. The proudest fact in the early history of our 
State was the general interest in its common schools and the 
general intelligence of its citizens. These traditions are still 
a power with the people. 

In any State where there are no such traditions and no 
such general and hearty appreciation of universal education, 
obligatory laws would be premature. 

Equally inefiectual will such laws be in any State where 
the Department of Public Instruction is Understood to have 
no faiih in them. Though there be no open opposition, nor 
any public avowal of doubt or disapproval, if the State 
Superintendent of schools simply stands aloof and maintains 
a dignified reserve, the law will not be likely ''to execute 



— 8 — 

itself." Firmnc?s united with conciliation, watchful super- 
vision, and earnest loork are the conditions of success. 

EDUCATION OF PUBLIC SENTIMENT. 

Instead of falling back upon the law to do the whole 
work, we have made argument, persuasion, and conciliation 
our main reliance. Any statute which should lessen these 
primal forces I should deprecate. But with growing faith 
in moral suasion I prize the sterner sanctions of the law, to 
be used only as a dernier ressort, in cases otherwise incor- 
rigible. When paternal pride, interest, or authority fails, 
and parental indifference or intemperance bars the way to 
school, legal coercion may be wisely employed. 

Whatever may be true in monarchical governments, in 
our country there is every motive to kindness and concili- 
ation in the execution of such a law. The plan is truly 
democratic, for its entire management is by the people and 
for the people, through school officers chosen by the people 
and responsible to the people. Such a law, in our country, 
should command popular sympathy far more than in any 
monarchy, for it is not pressed upon the people by some 
outside agency or higher power, but is their own work, em- 
bodying their judgment and preferences. The form of 
compulsory education which existed in Connecticut for more 
than a hundred and fifty years was not forced upon the 
people as "subjects." It was rather a living organism, of 
whicii they as "sovereigns" proudly claimed- the paternity, 
growing up with their growth and recognized as the source 
of their strength and prosperity. After the utmost use of 
kindness, tact, and persuasion, and every effort to awaken 
a dormant parental pride, if not a sense of duty, and show- 
ing that education will promote their children's thrift and 
happiness through life, we find that such persuasions are the 
more effective when it is understood that the sanctions of 
the law might be employed. We have used the right to 
enforce mainly as an argument to persuade — an authoii- 



tative appeal to good sense and parental pride. As thus 
used, we know in Connecticut that our law has been a 
moral force. It is itself an effective advocate of education 
to the very class who need it most. It has already accom- 
plished great good and brought into the schools many chil- 
dren who would otherwise have been absentees. 

Many individual instances of neglect or evasion still 
occur, occasioned by poverty or indifference of parents, or 
by the oversight or selfishness of employers, who do not, 
however, deny the justice and necessity of the law. A good 
work has been initiated. As yet it is only begun. Constant 
work and constant watchfulness are now necessary. Still 
better results are desired and will be secured, if the School 
Visitors throughout the State heartily cooperate in this 
most important part of their work. 

Since the adoption of our compulsory laws in 1869 and 
their modification in 1811 and "72, this question has been 
more prominently before the American people than ever be- 
fore. In the Southern States obhgatory education would 
yet be premature. In the older States, public sentiment is 
rapidly advancing in favor of the legal prevention of iUiter- 
acy. In some States, politicians are shy of it, and urge 
many objections. 

OBLIGATORY EDUCATION ADOPTED EARLY IN CONNECTICUT. 

It is an unfounded objection that compulsory education 
is monarchical in its origin and character. Massachusetts 
and Connecticut were the first States in the world that en- 
acted and practically applied the principle of compulsory 
education. Two years after the peace of Westphalia, before 
Prussia existed as a kingdom, and while Frederick William 
was only elector of Brandenburg, in 1650 — two hundred 
and twenty-five years ago — Connecticut adopted most 
rigid laws for coercive education. Substantially the same 
laws had been passed in Massachusetts even eight years 
earlier, 



— 10 — 

The selectmen in erverj town were then required to see 
that so much ^^ barbarism'^ was not permitted in any family 
as that their children should not be able perfectly to read 
the English tongue, upon penalty of twenty shillings for 
each neglect therein. Repetition of the offense was punished 
with still higher fines or by taking children away from their 
parents and apprenticing them where they would be sure to 
be educated. 

In the early history of Massachusetts and Connecticut 
this law was strictly executed. It was so heartily approved 
by the people, and the education of all children was so gen- 
erally desired and secured, that attendance lost its involun- 
tary character. Created by public opinion, it tended to 
deepen that sentiment. The demand that the barbarism of 
ignorance should not be tolerated, helped to make it dis- 
graceful to keep even an apprentice from school. To bring 
up a child or ward in ignorance was shameful and barbarous 
in the eyes of the fathers of New England. This is still the 
sentiment of their genuine descendants. High appreciation 
of education is one of the most precious traditions of Kew 
England. This old law greatly aided both in awakening 
and perpetuating this public interest, and in fixing the 
habits, associations, and traditions of the people. For one 
hundred and seventy years after the adoption of this law 
an adult native of Connecticut, of sound mind, unable to 
read the English language, would have been looked upon 
as a prodigy. Such a citizen of the old New England stock 
I have never met in Connecticut, though I have mingled 
freely with the people in every part of the State. In this 
respect my experience is not peculiar. Many prominent 
citizens of wide acquaintance in business or official relations 
bear the same testimony. But recently immigration has 
caused startling figures of illiteracy, especially in our manu- 
facturing ce Iters. With this ignorance, as a matter of 
course, comes indifl'ereuce to education, and hence the new 
need of coercion. 



— 11 — 

ARGUMENT FOR THE LAW. 

Abstract arguments on the justice of such laws are no 
longer needed. The right of the State to enforce attend- 
ance is now seldom questioned. It is a corollary from the 
compulsory school-tax. The power that claims public money 
to educate all classes, may justly provide that such expend- 
iture should not fail of its end through the vice, intemper- 
ance, or perverseness of parents. The State has the same 
right to compel the ignorant to learn that it has to compel 
the penurious to pay for that learning. Tax-payers perti- 
nently say, '^If you compel us. who have no children, to 
support schools for the good of the State, you must pro- 
vide that the children fail not to share the advantages thus 
furnished." 

-'the laboring classes won't stand it." 

The question really is one not of right, but of expediency. 
"The people will not bear compulsion," is the honest senti- 
ment of many earnest friends of education. Seven years 
ago, I- must confess, coercive measures seemed to me incon- 
sistent with the spirit of our people and of our institutions. 
I would not now advocate compulsion in any State where 
such are still the general views of the people. But on this 
subject public sentiment is often misunderstood and the dis- 
cernment of the masses is underrated. It is a significant 
fact that the labor unions, both in this country and in 
Europe, favor obligatory education. Mixing much with the 
laboring classes for the purpose of promoting school attend- 
ance, I have the best means of knowing their sentiments, 
and have been greatly encouraged by their appreciation of 
education, whether Americans, Germans, Swedes, or Irish. 

'^The laboring classes won't stand it," is a remark 
formerly made in Connecticut, and still repeated in the 
Middle and Western States. Disguise it as we may, this is 
the main objection. Hence the caution and timidity of many 
politicians on this subject. The present Mayor of one of 



— 12 — 

the cities of Connecticut, who is sagacious in reading public 
sentiment and an earnest advocate of educational progress, 
ably and successfully advocated our law on the floor of the 
House in 18U, and some of its most stringent provisions 
were made in an amendment suggested and supported by 
him. Another prominent member, who then dodged the 
question, now freely says he would gladly vote for this 
measure. This fact shows how the results have converted 
doubters to friends. The reaction threatened has not come. 
The masses are quick to see what is fitted and intended to 
promote their true interests. The workingmen of Con- 
necticut believe in maintaining good schools and in ensur- 
ing attendance upon them. As a class, they strongly favor 
the legal prevention of illiteracy. 

VIEWS OF THE WORKINGMEN OF EUROPE. 

The same spirit is manifested by the various labor organ- 
izations of Europe, as the discussions and resolutions . at 
their conventions clearly show. At the International 
Workingmen's Congress held at Lausanne, in Switzerland, 
the sentiment cordially adopted after full discussion was, 
'•that education should be universal, compulsory^ and 
national, but not denominational." In England they are 
earnestly advocating this measure. The opposition comes 
from the large farmers, and politicians, and property- 
holders. Attending the National Trades-Union Congress, 
held for five days at Nottingham, in 1872, I found that 
body strongly favoring such a law. One of the members, 
a leader in the labor-league movement, habitually address- 
ing large assemblies of workingmen in all parts of that 
country, said he everywhere found among them great 
unanimity on this subject, and never heard the objection 
that obligatory education would be a usurpation of 
parental or popular rights. No man in England so fully 
represents the sentiments of that most oppressed and de- 
pressed class, the farm-laborers of England, as Joseph 



— 13 ■— 

Arch. He is a most earnest advocate of universal and com- 
pulsory education. Denied all early school advantages, his 
own bitter experience has taught him to condemn the vir- 
tual exclusion of children from school by their constant em- 
ployment on farms or in factories. His motto is, ^'Child- 
labor means pauperism, crime, ignorance, immorality, and 
every evil." The latest reports from England show that 
school attendance has increased remarkably in those towns 
which adopted the compulsory system. The absence of all 
opposition from the lower classes and the good effects 
already witnessed are commending this measure to general 
favor. 

The motto of the National Educational League, sup- 
ported largely by the common people, is, ''Education must 
be universal, unsectarian, and compulsory." This was the 
unanimous sentiment expressed at the great annual meeting 
of this association held recently in Birmingham. The com- 
pulsory plan is now in operation for about 18 per cent, of 
the borough population of England, and, as a late number 
of the National Educational League says, it is working with 
great success and growing in public favor. 

After many inquiries among the laboring classes in Ger- 
many, I could nowhere get from them any objection to com- 
pulsory education. They evidently favor it, and so gener- 
ally regard the school as a privilege that attendance is 
voluntaiy, in fact, and few think of coercion. 

GERMAN EXPERIENCE. 

Said a resident of Dresden to the writer: "Were the 
question of compulsory attendance to be decided by a plebis- 
citum to-morrow, it would be sustained by an almost unani- 
mous verdict." Long ago Fichte said: "It is the first step 
that costs. The first generation will be the only one upon 
which it will be necessary to use constraint; for those who 
will have received the proposed education will voluntarily 
send their children to school" Experience has verified this 



— 14 — 

prediction. The most recent school statistics of Germany- 
show that school attendance is practically universal. 
''Among the conscripts of the districts purcl}^ German, 
hardly one in a hundred is without education; in Berlin, the 
proportion is tico in a thousand; the average is raised to 
three per cent., by the drafts from the non-German districts." 

FRENCH TESTIMONY. 

The wisest men of France learned a needful lesson at 
Sedan, Says Professor Breal of the College of France, in 
his recent w^ork on public instruction: "We must take our 
model from our conquerors. Three-fourths of our children 
must be regarded as devoted to ignorance." Says M. 
Emile do Lavelcye, in a review of popular instruction: " It 
is an indisputable fact that ignorance combined with uni- 
versal suffrage was the immediate cause of the recent 
reverses of France." In 1872, Jules Simon,, then Minister 
of Public Instruction, explained to me his bill for a new 
national system of education, in which compulsory attend- 
ance was a prominent feature. He said: "Prussia with 
obligatory instruction has conquered ignorance — a victory 
from which we are separated, after thirty years of effort, 
by nine hundred thousand children ignorant and neg- 
lected." 

It is a significant fact that Guizot, during the last three 
years of his life, stoutly advocated that compulsory system 
which he successfully opposed when Minister of Public In- 
struction in 1833. The logic of events liad refuted his old 
theory, that such "coercion was the creature of centrali- 
zation, and bore the marks of the convent and the barrack." 

COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE NOW UNIVERSAL IN SWITZERLAND. 

Switzerland, the country most jealous of liberty and 
averse to any form of usurpation, has long maintained com- 
pulsory attendance in all her twenty-two cantons, except 
in four of the smallest. In the recent revision of her con- 



— 15 — 

stitution this law was made universal in its application. 
That country — proud of being so long the home of freedom 
in Europe, glorying in free schools, free speech, free press, 
free trade, freedom of traveling, and freedom of religion — 
has now chosen anew for all its people the system of com- 
pulsory attendance. These facts clearly show that the pre- 
possessions of intelligent workingmen are not against obli- 
gatory education. 

Director Max Wirth of Bern proudly claims that ''no 
grown-up child exists in this Confederation, save an idiot 
here and there, who cannot read and write." Till he is six, 
the Swiss child may only dream of school, as he sees his 
brother or sister going thither, before seven o'clock in sum- 
mer and eight in winter. Swiss parents see to it that these 
shall be pleasant dreams. The school is the center of at- 
traction and interest. Attendance is held as a privilege 
rather than a legal necessity. The law itself has invested 
the school with dignity and honor. ''Attention to his school 
is not a formal business to a Switzer as it might be to a 
Briton and a Frank, but an engrossing duty from his cradle 
to his grave." 

My inspection of many schools in the leading countries 
of Europe led to the conclusion that Switzerland was un- 
paralleled on the Continent for the progress of her schools 
during the last twenty-five years, and for popular interest in 
education. In proportion to her means and opportunities, 
she is doing better even than Germany. To confirm this 
view, I need cite but two of the many concurring witnesses. 
In a recent debate in the House of Commons, Dr. Playfair 
said: " In Switzerland, a once miserable peasantry has be- 
come happy, prosperous, and contented, and has been made so 
by an education much higher than has ever been attempted 
in this country." M. Duruy, late Minister of Public In- 
struction in France, reported that "the eff'ect of the national 
system of education in Switzerland had been to empty the 
poor-houses and jails." The cost of education in Switzer- 



— 16 — 

land is for them immense, far greater than that of the 
army. In contrast, France spends fifteen times more for 
the army than for schools, and even in London, Vienna, 
and Berlin the war budgets are in excess of the education 
budgets. 

More than any other country of Europe, Switzerland is 
the home of industry. Her mechanics are educated and 
skillful. Though hemmed in by mountains, without a sea- 
port, with no coal, with costly transportation — all freight 
from the sea-board coming over foreign territory, she threat- 
ens the silk trade of Lyons, takes the ribbon trade of Cov- 
entry, rivals the English in muslin and delaine, and leads the 
world in watches and wood-carving. In the decade from 
1860 to 1870, her exports of silk alone rose 147 per cent, in 
quantity and 132 in value. The Earl of Rosebery, President 
of the English Social Science Association, in his opening ad- 
dress at its last meeting, says that the cause of this rapid 
progress of Swiss manufacture is plainly '' the complete and 
special education which she gives in primary schools and 
practical schools and trade schools and secondary schools 
and cantonal schools, all topped up by the great Polytech- 
nic Institute at Zurich. The Swiss manufacturer lives 
simply; he is master of his business; and his workmen, with 
whom he is in perpetual contact, respect him for this. 
Master and servant have been at the same school learning 
their craft, and they know it thoroughly." Such is the 
character of that free people who have just voted to make 
compulsory education univei'sal. 

ENGLISH CONVERSIONS. 

A striking conversion occurred in the case of the late 
Canon Kingsley. Though he long took a lively interest in 
the improvement of the working classes, an interest 
deepened by his service as government inspector of schools, 
he opposed obligatory education as un-English and offensive 
to the independent spirit of his countrymen. On finding 



— n — 

that the working people favored compulsory attendance, 
his objections vanished. 

A still more remarkable change has occurred in the 
views of Mr. Forster, the father of the Educational Act of 
1870. He then opposed the efforts of George Dixon and of 
the National Educational League to make compulsion uni- 
versal. Permission only was given to local Boards, wher- 
ever they should be formed, to adopt coercion. Though 
convinced of the justness of this measure, he argued that 
the people are not prepared for it, and that outcries of "un- 
English," "arbitrary," "tyrannical," "invasion of one's 
home," "usurpation of parental rights," and all the easy 
clap-trap of demagogues, would create a reaction, and 
therefore he did not ask for a general compulsory law. It 
was said, no matter what can be done in Prussia, or even 
in Switzerland, the people of England have too much inde- 
pendence, too much aversion to any semblance of tyranny, 
ever to submit to compulsory education. Mr. Forster now 
admits that he had no expectation that the town population 
would, to so great an extent, adopt the principle of com- 
pulsory education. Every town in England with 20,000 in- 
habitants, which has a School Board, has adopted it. The 
permissive provision for local compulsion was ingrafted in 
this bill with little faith that it would be ratified and ap- 
plied in any of the large towns. But the people have sur- 
prised Parliament. In March last Mr. Forster said in the 
House of Commons: "Almost the entire town population of 
England is now under compulsory education. It might be 
said the adoption of the compulsory principle was a sudden 
freak and that there would be a reaction. But as yet 
there is no sign of reaction. If compulsion had worked 
with hardship on the people, nothing was so easy as to 
revert to the former state of things. If a motion were now 
made antagonistic to this principle of compulsion, it would 
not have a single supporter in the School Boards of Lon- 
don, Manchester J Birmingham, or any other large town. 



^ 18 — 

The school attendance in those towns where it has been 
made compulsory, has been improved 30 per cent. Leeds, 
for example, had almost solved the problem of getting hold 
of all the children. The attendance there has doubled by 
compulsion. The same has been done at SheflBeld. At 
Stockport they had increased the average attendance until 
there were less than 2J per cent, of the children between 5 
and 1 5 who were not at school, and some of them were ex- 
cusable on account of mental or physical inability. After 
all, compulsion was merely a declaration by the State that 
it was the duty of the parent to see that his child was edu- 
cated. The right to compel a father to feed and clothe his 
child is admitted, and we have now arrived at a point of 
civilization at which we can declare that it is his duty to see 
that he is educated. The sole meaning of compulsion is 
that this is the duty of every parent, and that it is the busi- 
ness of the State to secure the performance of that duty, 
and if the parent is disabled by poverty, then to help him 
from local rates or imperial funds. It has been said, we 
must wait for public opinion. Well, public opinion has de- 
clared itself, for every town that by law was able to do so, 
has put the compulsory system in force. The fact is, that 
the arguments in favor of compulsion are overwhelming, 
and Parliament should now make compulsion universal. It 
is admitted, you cannot extend compulsion without produ- 
cing some hardship, and bringing a bitter pinch to some 
poor widow who depended on her children's labor. No 
great reform can be effected without cases of individual 
hardship, but in the long run these alterations would be 
productive of magnificent results for the whole population." 
Another M. P., Mr. Phipps, said in the same discussion; 
''Every child ought to be educated, and eventually compul- 
sion must be universally employed. Experience already 
proves that the principle of compulsion is not repugnant to 
the feelings of the people. Compulsion is an ugly word, 
and expressed a foreign idea, but it is wonderful how much 



— 19 — 

the idea had become acclimatized among uSo Ifc is the only- 
remedy for the present, and after it had been applied for a 
generation it would be needed with reference only to the 
waifs and strays of the population." 

The Hon., John D. Philbrick, formerly the efficient Superin- 
tendent of the schools of Connecticut and now of Boston, 
examined carefully the working of obligatory education 
when recently in Europe. His well-known caution and 
sound judgment give weight to his opinions. He said: ''The 
experiment in Connecticut is another valuable argument in 
favor of the principle of compulsion. I fully believe not 
only in the expediency of this principle as an indispensable 
element in our system of public schools, but I believe that 
compulsory education is destined to be absolutely universal 
in every country that pretends to educate its children. 
The more I study history, the more I observe the workings 
of this system at the present day, and the great drift of 
public sentiment in different countries on this subject, the 
more strongly I am convinced that the compulsory system 
will be more and more approved in proportion as it is 
thoroughly executed." 

Mr. Giles Potter, our Agent, has rendered efficient ser- 
vice in securing the observance of the compulsory law. 
He now (1878) devotes his entire time to this important 
work. The plan of visiting schools to ascertain the extent 
of absenteeism from both pupils and teacher has proved 
very useful during the year 1877. The question: ^'does any 
scholar in this school know of a boy or a girl of school age 
who has attended no school this term or this year?" is very 
sure to reveal the real facts in each case. These inquiries 
have increased attendance and served to magnify the im- 
portance of the school. The fact that the State is thus en- 
forcing attendance and even looking after individual children 
has led many foreign parents to a higher appreciation of the 
school and their own parental duties. 



— 20 — 
REPORT OF THE AGENT OF THE BOARD. 

During the last year I have endeavored to secure the 
cooperation of school officers and employers in order that 
the law in regard to attendance at school, so far at least 
as it relates to children employed in any work whatever, 
might be fully observed without continued attention from 
the State Agent. In our manufacturing districts I confer- 
red with school-visitors and employers, and wherever it 
was practicable made an arrangement whereby some school 
official should receive the names of the children to be dis- 
missed from employment and see that they attended school 
regularly for .at least twelve weeks. Employers were also 
requested to keep records of the children employed by them 
on blanks prepared for that purpose, showing their age, the 
time they were employed, and when they attended school. 
Wherever these arrangements were carried out, the results 
have been very satisfactory. 

But in many cases, no systematic efforts have been 
made to carry them into effect. Though employers have 
not generally kept the desired records, none have refused 
to give me the information asked for, and I am confident 
that they will give the same needed information to school- 
visitors or others whose business it may be to inquire after 
neglected children. There may be some exceptional cases 
where employers and parents will desire to have their chil- 
dren continue at work beyond the time allowed by law, with 
the express understanding that when they go to school, the 
time of schooling shall be prolonged. In such cases the 
spirit, if not the letter, of the law maybe fully complied with. 

Blank certificates like the following are distributed freely 
wherever they are called for. — Some school-visitors desire 
to have them given to all the scholars who have attended 
the full time specified, but general experience favors the 
plan of giving them only to those who ask for them. Some 
employers demand them and will not employ a child who 
cannot produce one. The following is the form now used: 



— 21. — 

Neglect on the part of parents or other persons having control 
of a child, to cause such child to attend school as the law requires, 
is punishable by a fine of $5 for each week of neglect. 











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•— 22 — 

In a few instances employers have been deceived by 
'^borrowed" and even by counterfeit certificates, so that 
this plan needs to be used with care. That class of parents 
for which the law was made hardly look three months ahead 
for the consequences of neglect to comply with its require- 
ments, especially when there are so many ways in which 
the law can be evaded. Those children whose education is 
neglected through poverty, indifference, or avarice, must 
be watched during the time they should attend school by 
some persons who can appreciate tlie welfare of the children 
and the interests of the Commonwealth. Want of such 
watchfulness is not because public opinion does not approve 
compulsory education. Mingling freely with the people in 
all parts of the State, I have found but one man the last 
year who opposes this law. It unquestionably meets with 
general approval, and the people are demanding that it shall 
be strictly executed. In some instances, legal proceedings 
have been commenced against parents, who after repeated 
warnings continued to neglect to school their children. But 
when they once saw the legal papers against them, signed 
by the proper authorities, they decided to comply with the 
law. When conversing with negligent parents and seeking 
to hold up school attendance as a privilege ft)r their children, 
I have found an allusion to the law would prevail where ray 
mere persuasion had failed. 

Proper legal blanks for arrests for truancy have been 
prepared, and being freely furnished to officers and teach- 
ers, these papers have had a salutary effect on some truants 
who before seemed incorrigible. Though tlie plans sug- 
gested to school officers and employers have not been fully 
carried out as yet, though indifference or neglect is 
still shown by some of both these classes, yet the general 
results of our compulsory law are quite encouraging. It 
has exerted a decided influence on those whom it was de- 
signed to reach, and has greatly increased the attendance 
in our schools. 



— 23 — 

In the first four months of 18*75, inquiries were made, 
personally or by letter, at every establishment where there 
was reason to suppose children might be employed, how 
many under fourteen years of age were employed, and how 
many of these had attended school any part of the past 
year. About 500 estabhshments were thus inquired of, and 
in 232 of them, children under fourteen years of age were 
employed. In 55 of these were children of the age referred 
to, wiio had not attended school in the twelve months im- 
mediately preceding the time of the inquiry. More than 
three-fourths of all the children under fourteen years of age 
were said to have attended school within that time, and 
one-third of the remainder had been in the State less than 
nine months, so that the employing of them was hardly a 
violation of the law. In some cases the only evidence that 
the children had attended school, was their own statements, 
and it was by no means certain that they had been in school 
the full time required by law. But many who had not at- 
tended school in those twelve months, had been constant 
attendants till twelve or thirteen years of age, so that they 
had conformed to the spirit, if not to the letter, of the law. 

There is a growing tendency among manufacturers to 
discontinue employing young children. They say: "It is not 
profitable; the children ought to be in school; it troubles us 
to watch them, and send them out to school, and we do not 
employ them." One factory employing a very large num- 
ber of children, had reduced that number two-thirds in 
eighteen months. The reason assigned was this: "In ex- 
plaining the education law to our operatives, we have used 
our best endeavors to impress upon their minds the benefits 
that children will derive from being educated. Yery few ob- 
ject, and those who do, finding we are in earnest to have the 
law complied with, seek employment elsewhere." 

While the general result of the investigation is quite as 
favorable as could have been anticipated, some employers 
have shown a surprising lack of knowledge as to the viola- 



— 24 — 

tions of the law in their own establishments, and when the 
facts were brought to their notice, have at once applied the 
remedy. One reason for requesting employers to keep rec- 
ords of children's ages, the time they attended school, etc., 
was that the children might not be retained at work longer 
than the law allows. 

While attention is arrested by a considerable number of 
children employed in a few manufactories and stores, it must 
not be forgotten tliat scattered all through the State, even 
in towns where there is no manufacturing, there are chil- 
dren kept from school, employed at home in domestic labors, 
or on work taken home, in families and at odd jobs, or 
wasting their time in idleness. The returns concerning 
these children are very imperfect, and, in some places, the 
people seem to liave become so accustomed to this state of 
things, as not to see that these children are suffering an ir- 
reparable loss, and that the State is liable to be burdened 
with pauperism and crime, the sure results of ignorance. 

During the last ten years, the improvement, in most of 
the towns, in the schools, and school-houses, the general in- 
terest in education produced by lectures and Teachers' In- 
stitutes, and the influence of compulsory lav\'S, have greatly 
increased the attendance in tlie schools. If any other means 
can be devised, whereby the number of non-attendants 
among children of school age shall be still further, and more 
rapidly diminished, a rich blessing will be conferred on the 
rising generation and the commonwealth. 

Questions are often asked regarding the physical con- 
dition of the children employed in factories. The rooms 
where they work, especially in the factories more recently 
built, are large and well warmed, though not always well 
ventilated. The kind of work done, does not admit of a 
draft of air, yet the air is seldom A'ery impure, though it 
must, of course, contain small fibers of the material used. 

The work done by small children is generally light, such 
as placing spools, or mending tlireads. Most of the time 



— 26 — 

they are on their feet, though they often have time to lounge 
or sit down. They are generally well clothed, and appear 
to be quite healthy. Many are very small for their age, and 
this is characteristic of a large class ndw employed in fac- 
tories. It is surprising, in some places, to find so many 
small children who are over fourteen years of age; and yet 
it is not a bad indication, for it shows some regard is paid 
to the school law. Aside from the long confinement and the 
want of out-door exercise at some other time than late in 
the evening, there is nothing injurious in the work they do. 
The chief objection to their working as they do is that they 
are not receiving that intellectual training without which 
their bodies, if not their minds, must remain forever 
dwarfed. 

Giles Potter. 
Essex, May 1st, 1875. 

During the last year Mr. Potter found but fifty-five 
establishments where any children had been illegally em- 
ployed. Fifteen of these employed illegally but one child 
each, seven but two each, leaving but thirty-three estab- 
lishments, out of two hundred and thirty-two reporting, which 
have employed more than two each, A considerable num- 
ber of these employed but three or four when the returns 
were made. If the investigation were made to-day, the 
number of "transgressors" would be fewer still. There are 
in Connecticut 102 cotton manufactories of all gratles and 
105 woolen manufactories. In these mills child labor is most 
available. It is but justice to the many manufacturers 
who have cheerfully conformed to the law, even when it in- 
volved both trouble and expense in securing the needed 
help, that these statements should be distinctly made. They 
have a right to claim that the children "dismissed for 
school " shall not at once be employed in any competing 
establishment. If any such facts shall hereafter occur,, the 
law should be promptly and rigidly enforced. 



— 26 — 

An incident lately occurred in the largest manufacturing 
center of Windham County, which illustrates the influence 
both of the Agent and the Borough Constable, who has 
faithfully cooperated with him in that place. Mr. Potter 
had received information that there were twelve children in 
one of the large mills who liad not attended school during 
the year. The constable replies, ''There must be some 
mistake about this matter. Tlie Superintendent sent out 
the non-attendants one third each term. I do not think 
there can be twelve children here who have not attended 
school. I have spent much time in running after the chil- 
dren the last year, and have made fourteen arrests and re- 
turned the children to the school, and have taken a good 
deal of trouble in this matter and tried to do the work faith- 
fully. But now I will make a thorough sweep, and visit 
every house, and learn if there are ''twelve" non-attend- 
ants. I think Ave is nearer right, but I will report the 
result." 

Certainly the school attendance in the Borough has been 
greatly increased by the faithful efforts of this officer, and 
his example is commended to all local scliool officers. 

The gain in attendance since the adoption of our com- 
pulsory law, shows the wisdom and value of the enactment, 
and amply compensates for all the effort put forth to secure 
its general observance. Besides the systematic work of the 
Agent, I have kept in view the needs of the neglected chil- 
dren in* my visits to towns, schools, and factories, and in 
conferences with school officers, and in public lectures. The 
chief trouble has not been with the large manufacturers, 
who, as a rule, have cordially cooperated with us, but with 
the far greater number who employ a few children in shops, 
or stores, or a single one on the farm, or in the family. Our 
law applies alike to all employers of children, to farmers, 
mechanics, and merchants, as well as to manufacturers. 
Up to the present date (January, 1878), rigid as is our law, no 
opposition to it has ever been expressed, so far as I can 



^ 27 — 

learn, either in the legislature, in the press, or in any pub- 
lic meeting. But the law should not relax* our efforts at 
persuasion — in making our schools so attractive, and their 
substantial advantages so inviting, that none can afford to 
lose them — so that attendance shall be regarded as a privi- 
lege rather than a legal necessity. But when reason, per- 
suasion, and patriotism all fail, coercion should stand in 
their stead. The law should protect helpless childhood 
whose rights are sacred. It recognizes the claims of the 
humblest child to an education as that which the State can- 
not neglect without detriment to itself, and harm to a 
human soul. Not even by omission may the State doom a 
single child to ignorance and its manifold evils. The tem- 
porary hardships occasionally incident to the observance of 
this law, will be counterbalanced a thousandfold by the 
permanent advantage of both parents and children, but its 
neglect will inflict lasting evil upon them and the whole 
community. 



STATE OF CONNECTICUT, 

LAWS KELATING TO TRUANCY, &c. 



CSAPTEB XCVIII. 

An Act Amending the General Statutes Relating to Education. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened: 

Section 1. The police in any city, and bailiffs, constables, sheriffs, and 
deputy sheriffs, in their respective precincts, shall arrest all boys between eight 
and sixteen years of age, who habitually wander or loiter about the streets or 
public places, or anywhere beyond the proper control of their parents or guar- 
dians, during.the. usual school hours of the school term; and may stop any boy 
under sixteen years of age during such hours, and ascertain whether.he.be a- 
truant from school; and if he be, shall send him to such school. 



— 28 — 

Sec. 2. Any boy arrested the third time under the provisions of the pre- 
ceding section, shaU be taken, if not immediately returned to school, before the 
judge of the criminal or police court, or any justice of the peace in the city, 
borough, or town where such arrest is made; and if it shall appear that such boy 
has "no lawful occupation, or is not attending school, or is growing up in habits 
of idleness or immorality, or is an habitual truant, he may be committed to any 
institution of instruction- or correction, or house of reformation in said city, 
borough, or town, or, with the approval of the selectmen, to the state reform 
school, for not more than three years. 

Sec. 3. Officers other than policemen of cities shall receive for making the 
arrests required by the preceding sections, such fees, not exceeding the fees al- 
lowed by the statutes for making other arrests, as may be allowed by the select- 
men of the town in which such arrests are made; but unless a warrant was 
issued by a judge of the criminal or police court or by a justice of the peace, the 
officer shall, before receiving his fees, present to the selectmen of the town a 
written statement showing the name of each boy arrested, the day on which the 
arrest was made, and, if the boy was returned to school, the name or number of 
the school to which he was so returned. 

Approved, March 14, 1877. 



CHAPTER II, TITLE VIII, OF THE GENERAL STATUTES. 

Sectiox 1. The parent or guardian of any girl between the ages of eight and 
sixteen years, or a selectman or grand juror of the town where she may be found 
may present a written complaint to the judge of the Court of Probate for the 
district in which such town is, or to the judge of the Police Court of any city 
where she ma}' be found or to any justice of the peace of such town, alleging 
that she has committed any offence within the final jurisdiction of a justice of 
the peace, or belongs to the class specifled in the third section of Chapter VI of 
Title XIV, or in the seventh and eighth sections of Chapter I of Title XI, or that 
she is leading an idle, vagrant, or vicious life, or is in manifest danger of falling 
into habits of vice, praying that she may be sent to the Connecticut Industrial 
School for Girls, and such judge or justice of the peace shall, thereupon after 
notice to her and such other notice as he may deem proper, inquire into said 
complaint, and on being satisfied of the truth of the allegations therein, may 
order her to be committed to the custody of such School, until she shall arrive 
at the age of eighteen years, unless sooner lawfully discharged, and if he finds 
that she has committed an offence punishable by imprisonment other than im- 
prisonment for life, she may be sentenced to the Connecticut Industrial School 
for Girls,or judgment may be suspended, on such terms, and for such time, as he 
may prescribe; and said authority may issue a warrant for the execution of such 
sentence. 

Sec. 2. Any proper officer may arrest within his precincts any girl whom 
he shall judge to be between the ages of eight and sixteen years, whom he shall 
find in any improper place or situation, and who is, in his judgment liable to be 
arrested for any of tlie offences specified in the preceding section, and make 
complaint and proceed in the same manner as a parent could do under the pro- 
visions of the preceding section. 




E. STEIGER, 

NEW YORK. 



A 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 498 180 9 



